Handheld mobile communications device with an image sensor and a detachable printing mechanism

ABSTRACT

A handheld mobile communications device comprising:
         a support structure;   radio signal processing circuitry positioned on the support structure and configured to receive and transmit radio signals;   an image sensor positioned on the support structure for electronically capturing an image;   image processing circuitry positioned on the support structure and operatively connected to: the image sensor to receive the electronically captured image; and the radio signal processing circuitry;   a receptacle for receiving a detachable printing mechanism, the receptacle including an interface enabling connection of the printing mechanism to the image processing circuitry, thereby enabling images processed by the image processing circuitry to be printed by the printing mechanism when it is operatively positioned within the receptacle.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/659,022 filed on Sep. 11, 2003, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/436,589 filed on Nov. 9, 1999, now issued asU.S. Pat. No. 6,628,430, the entire contents of which are hereinincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to printing systems and more particularlyto a handheld mobile communications device having a detachable printingmechanism.

The invention has been developed primarily for use with ultra compactmobile phones such as Personal Handyphone System (PHS) phones or otherclose network cellular devices. However, it will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art, that the invention is equally applicable to allother types of hand held mobile phones including existing Global Systemfor Mobile communication (GSM) phones, the proposed new General packetradio service (GPRS) and Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)phones, satellite phones and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided ahandheld, mobile communications device that comprises:

a support structure;

radio signal processing circuitry positioned on the support structureand configured to receive and transmit radio signals;

audio signal processing circuitry positioned on the support structureand operatively connected to the radio signal processing circuitry; and

image processing circuitry positioned on the support structure andoperatively connected to the radio signal processing circuitry; wherein

a printing mechanism is detachably mountable on the support structure tobe operatively connected to the image processing circuitry to printimages generated by the image processing circuitry.

The printing mechanism may include a pagewidth printhead and an inkdistribution unit mounted on the printhead to supply ink to theprinthead.

The printhead may include a printhead chip that spans a print mediapathway, the printhead chip defining a plurality of ink inlets for thesupply of ink to the printhead chip.

The ink distribution unit may define a number of discrete ink supplychambers and a plurality of ink pathways interposed between the inksupply chambers and said ink inlets, the ink pathways converging towardsthe ink inlets so that each ink inlet is supplied with ink from arespective ink pathway.

The radio signal processing circuitry may be configured to process radiosignals of the type transmitted and received by a mobile telephone.

The audio signal processing circuitry may be configured to process audiosignals of the type generated and received by a mobile telephone.

The image processing circuitry may be configured to process images ofthe type generated by a digital camera device.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a hand held mobile phone device with integral internal printapparatus, said device comprising:

a mobile telephone unit for transmitting and receiving signals;

processing means for processing said received and transmitted signalsinto a printable form;

a printhead and ink distribution unit assembly attached to saidprocessing means for printing out said processed signals onto a printmedia; and

print media feed means to feed print media received from a supplyexternal of said phone device to said printhead for printing of saidprocessed signal information thereon.

Preferably, the print media comprises paper or card sheets.

The printhead can comprise a single unit of the width of the print mediaand may be formed via semiconductor fabrication techniques.

Desirably, the printhead or printhead and ink distribution unit assemblyis detachable from the phone device. In the preferred form the printheadis part of a sub-assembly also including an ink distribution unit andink supply, hereinafter referred to as a printhead and ink supplymodule.

The printhead can comprise a full color printhead attached via an inkdistribution unit to a series of ink supply reservoirs to supplyseparate colors to each of the colors of the printhead.

In a preferred form, the printhead comprises an array of ink ejectionnozzle arrangements wherein liquid can be ejected by means ofcorresponding actuators attached to ejection paddles associated witheach of the nozzle arrangements. Preferably, the actuators are thermalbend actuators.

The printhead and ink supply module preferably includes an inkdistribution unit connected with a series of attached ink supplyreservoirs, with a first reservoir being substantially larger than theothers which is preferably used to store black ink. The printhead andthe ink distribution unit assembly or printhead and ink supply moduleoptionally form a releasable snap fit with the mobile telephone unit.

The printhead or printhead and ink distribution unit assembly alsopreferably includes an authentication means that in the preferredembodiment is in the form of an authentication chip. This enables theuse of only approved consumables with the phone device and alsooptionally records use and consumption data and which may be used toallow for only a predetermined amount of usage of the printhead orprinthead and ink supply module.

The print media can be fed into the printer phone manually.Alternatively, a print media dispensing device can be used thatpreferably includes:

a print media storage region having a dispensing outlet;

a printer phone cradle to support said printer phone and align a printmedia inlet thereon with the dispensing outlet of the print mediastorage region; and

a dispensing ejector mechanism operable to eject a predeterminedquantity of print media through the dispensing outlet and into theprinter phone print media inlet for engagement with an associated printmedia feed means provided in said phone.

Desirably, the print media is in the form of card or paper sheets.

Preferably, the ejector mechanism comprises a slider operable to selectand engage one of the card or paper sheets and drive it through thedispensing outlet.

Desirably, the print media storage means includes a means to bias asupply of print media disposed therein toward said ejector mechanism andinto alignment with said dispensing outlet.

While the preferred telephone unit of the invention is a PHS phonedevice, the invention is equally applicable to any type of mobile phoneutilising any communications system, so long as the transmitted signalscan be processed into a printable form. Examples of other suitable phonetypes and/or communication systems include GSM, CDMA satellite phonesystems and third generation Internet connected mobile phone (3G)systems including GPRS & WCDMA.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way ofexample only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a first embodiment printer phonein accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of the phone shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view as shown in FIG. 1 with the frontouter cover removed;

FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of the battery shown in the previousfigures;

FIG. 5 is a layered sectional right hand side view of the printer phoneshown in the previous figures;

FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of the printer phone sub-chassis andprinthead/ink supply module;

FIG. 7 is a front perspective view of the support chassis shown in FIG.6.

FIG. 8 is a part sectioned front perspective view of the printhead andink supply module shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a transverse section through the phone unit and printhead/inksupply module;

FIG. 10 is a front layered sectional view of the printer phone of theprevious figures;

FIG. 11 is a plan view of the phone of the previous figures attached toan associated print media-dispensing device;

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the print media-dispensing device shown inFIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a left-hand side view of the print media dispenser shown inFIGS. 11 and 12;

FIG. 14 is a sectional right hand side view of the print media dispensershown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 15 is a plan view of the print media dispenser shown in FIG. 11with the upper portion of the casing removed; and

FIG. 16 is a schematic block diagram showing the electricalinterconnections.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the preferred embodiment illustrated, there is provided a mobilephone having an internal printer which includes a separately detachableprinthead and ink supply module. The printer phone can be produced at orclose to a standard size phone for any system including PHS, GSM andGPRS, thereby conferring a higher level of convenience during operation.

Turning initially to FIG. 1, there is illustrated the preferredembodiment 1 in the form of a PHS phone and which in many ways lookslike and includes the features of a conventional mobile phone of thistype including an ear piece 2, microphone 3, aerial 4, loud speaker 5, aseries of push buttons 6 and a preferably color LCD screen 7 for thedisplay of information. Also included is a battery 8 as shown in FIG. 4.

The phone 1 can optionally be equipped with a camera device 10comprising lenses 11 and associated CCD chip or CMOS sensor 12. The CCDor CMOS sensor enables the device to store images on demand, so that thephone can effectively act as a camera device for the printing out ofimages, or for their capture and forwarding across a mobile phonenetwork. The operation of the relevant part of the internal controlelectronics can be substantially as set out in the applicant's earlierPCT application WO 99/04551 entitled “A replenishable one time usecamera system” the contents of which are incorporated herein byreference. In other embodiments, the camera device may also beconfigured to enable video conferencing by facilitating simultaneousimage processing during phone transmission. A camera function that ismounted for selective movable positioning on the phone device may beuseful for this purpose. For example, it may be rotatable between aforward facing camera orientation and a rearward facing videoconferencing orientation.

The printer apparatus is shown generally at 15 and comprises a printheadand ink supply module 16 including a printhead 17, an inksupply/distribution unit 18 and a print media feed apparatus 20. Thefeed apparatus is of a conventional form including a motor 21 withassociated gear train 22 which drive a series of feed rollers 23.

The packaging of the printer apparatus 15 is best shown in FIGS. 5, 6and 9. In this regard the printer phone 1 is constructed around a rigidchassis molding 25. The chassis is adapted to slidably receive andretain the printhead and ink supply module 16 by means of retainingflanges 26 provided on the outer casing of the printhead and ink supplymodule 16 which co-operate with under cut channels 27 provided on thechassis molding.

The full operation of the printer apparatus 15 is best illustrated inFIG. 9. In use print media 30, preferably in the form of business cardsized paper or card sheets, is fed in through an entry slot 31 providedin the external phone casing 32. This can be done manually or via adispenser as described hereafter. The card 30 is then picked up by thepowered entry feed rollers 23 and delivered to the printhead and inksupply module 16. The printhead and ink supply module 16 can besubstantially the same as that disclosed in Australian ProvisionalPatent No. PP6534 filed 16 Oct., 1998 (U.S. Ser. No. 09/425,419 filed 19Oct. 1999), the contents of which are also hereby incorporated bycross-reference. In such a device, the printhead is in the form of anelongate printhead chip that extends the full length of the print mediapathway, so as to print the full width of the print media in a singlepass without the need for any printhead traversing mechanisms.

In this particular preferred embodiment, the printhead and ink module isformed as a sealed unit which is replaced in its totality after apredetermined amount of usage. The detailed structure of the ink supplyand printhead module is shown more clearly in FIG. 8. The inksupply/distribution unit 18 is of a molded multi-part structureincluding a cover 35, a macro channel molding 36 defining four separateink supply chambers 37–40 having therein optional flow control baffles41. Connected with converging outlets of the macro channel molding 36 isa micro-molding 42 which defines similarly converging ink flow nozzles43 that accurately direct the ink to minute ink supply inlets on therear of the printhead 17. Optionally, an ink filter 44 is providedbetween the two moldings. A capping device 47 is also provided as partof the module for sealing and protecting the nozzle outlets when theprinter head is not in use. It is estimated that the ink supply will onaverage be sufficient for printing approximately 1000 pages at 15%coverage of black or 100 photos of 50% coverage of CMYK. An expandedtechnical description of the printhead and ink supply module can befound in the aforementioned provisional patent specification PP6534 andassociated applications.

The mobile phone system can be operated under the control of a series ofone or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICS) whichincorporate the usual mobile phone capabilities in addition to cameraand image processing capabilities. An adaptation of the system outlinedin PCT Patent Application PCT/AU98/00544 filed by the present applicant(also incorporated herein by reference) can be utilised in the design ofthe ASIC. The electrical interconnections for the preferred embodimentare shown schematically as a block diagram in FIG. 16. Other systemdesigns well known to those skilled in this field may also be used.

Referring next to FIGS. 11 to 15 there is illustrated a print mediadispenser 50 configured for use with the PHS phone of the previousembodiments. The dispenser comprises a lower molding 51 that defines amedia storage and dispensing region 52 and a cradle 53 which supportsthe printer phone 1 and aligns it with the outlet of the dispenser.

The interactive operation of the print media dispenser with the phone 1is best illustrated in FIG. 14. As can be seen, the dispenser 50 has astorage area 52 in which is disposed a quantity of print media in theform of business card sized paper or card sheets 54. These cards aresupported on a metal base plate 55 which is sprung by means of opposedspring fingers 56 as shown in FIG. 15. In this manner, the card supplyis constantly biased upwardly toward a media ejector mechanism 58. Theejector mechanism includes an ejector slider 59 which is operable uponmanual sliding against a return spring 60 to pick up the top card andfeed this out of the dispenser outlet 61 and into the media entry slot31 on the phone 1. On release, the slider automatically returns to thehome position to engage the next card ready for further loading.

Desirably, the printer phone 1 and/or printhead and ink supply module 16includes an authentication mechanism such as that outlined in theapplicant's earlier PCT application no. PCT/AU98/00544 entitled “Acamera with an internal printing system”. This can be used to ensure notonly that an authenticated approved consumable (such as the printheadand ink supply module) is used with the printer phone, but can also beused to store data on the relative usages of the consumable componentssuch as the ink or the printhead itself and can optionally be used toset a predetermined usage for these items. As noted above, the phonedevice of the invention may be any kind of mobile phone that sends andreceives signals in a manner which can be processed into a printableform. Further, while the preferred form described has a printhead andink distribution unit which has an integrally formed and attached inksupply, the ink supply could be separate and optionally also separatelyreplenishable.

While the invention has been described with reference to specificexamples, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that theinvention may be embodied in many other forms.

1. A handheld mobile communications device comprising: a supportstructure; radio signal processing circuitry positioned on the supportstructure and configured to receive and transmit radio signals; an imagesensor positioned on the support structure for electronically capturingan image; image processing circuitry positioned on the support structureand operatively connected to: the image sensor to receive theelectronically captured image; and the radio signal processingcircuitry; a receptacle for receiving a detachable printing mechanism,the receptacle including an interface enabling connection of theprinting mechanism to the image processing circuitry, thereby enablingimages processed by the image processing circuitry to be printed by theprinting mechanism when it is operatively positioned within thereceptacle.
 2. A communications device as claimed in claim 1, in whichthe printing mechanism includes a pagewidth printhead and an inkdistribution unit mounted on the printhead to supply ink to theprinthead.
 3. A communications device as claimed in claim 2, in whichthe printhead includes a printhead chip that spans a print mediapathway, the printhead chip defining a plurality of ink inlets for thesupply of ink to the printhead chip.
 4. A communications device asclaimed in claim 3, in which the ink distribution unit defines a numberof discrete ink supply chambers and a plurality of ink pathwaysinterposed between the ink supply chambers and said ink inlets, the inkpathways converging towards the ink inlets so that each ink inlet issupplied with ink from a respective ink pathway.
 5. A communicationsdevice as claimed in claim 1, in which the radio signal processingcircuitry is configured to process radio signals of the type transmittedand received by a mobile telephone.